Elden Ring's Poise & Super Armor Mechanics (& How to Use Them)
Adventuring in Elden Ring can be deadly, but players can prevent many deaths in FromSoftware's new game by utilizing Poise and Super Armor in combat.
With Elden Ring being the newest RPG developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring carries the tradition of difficulty from the rest of FromSoftware's catalogue. While part of the difficulty of games like Elden Ring come from level design and enemy placement, part of the learning curve in Elden Ring comes from the player interacting with the various game systems underlining combat. One of the most important game systems for players to grapple with is Poise. Poise can be broken down into two different parts: Poise and Super Armor. Both Poise and Super Armor (also known as Hyper Armor) are key to player success in Elden Ring.
Super Armor and Hyper Armor are terms that can be used to mean different things in games like in For Honor, but the burgeoning Elden Ring community uses both terms to refer to the same underlying game mechanic. A mechanic dating back to fighting games, Hyper Armor refers to a time window during which the player is immune to interruption. In Elden Ring, getting hit by an unblocked attack can cause the player to stagger. This staggering will interrupt the player's action, causing the player into a very vulnerable position. Super Armor is one of the player's tools to overcome these interruptions.
As players acquire the best weapons in Elden Ring, a key aspect of learning how to use the weapon is learning the Super Armor included in that weapon's moveset. Some of the moves in each weapon's movesets may include frames of Super Armor, frames of that move's animation where the player becomes immune to interruption. While blocking or dodging attacks may reduce or negate incoming damage, Super Armor frames enable the player to offensively posture during a fight. It is important for players to learn which moves include these frames of interruption invulnerability: a piece of knowledge especially crucial when dealing with Player vs Player combat.
The interruption invulnerability from Super Armor is an active skill the player needs to perform, but Elden Ring also includes a Poise stat which serves as a passive defense against interruption. Unless players choose to play Elden Ring without wearing armor, the player's armor will be the source of the player's Poise stat. The best way for players to think of Poise is a loose comparison to the Posture mechanic from FromSoftware's previous game, Sekiro. With the main difference between the mechanics being the end result, both Elden Ring's Poise and Sekiro's Posture act like secondary health bars. In the case of Elden Ring's Poise Stat, this bar is not visible on the User Interface, but it can be helpful for players to think of it like a visible health bar.
The maximum value of the player's Poise bar is equal to their Poise stat. Each attack in the game will deal a specific amount of Poise damage to the target in addition to the Health damage that it deals. If this Poise damage reduces the character's Poise bar to zero, the character becomes interrupted. The higher the character's Poise stat, the more Poise damage they can take before staggering. This is the mechanic that makes the player's armor choice an important decision in Elden Ring.
Players wishing to operate aggressively, or fight in Player versus Player invasions in Elden Ring, will need both the proper amount of Poise and efficient use of Super Armor frames in their weapon's moveset. It is important for players to note that as of the publication of this article, there is no known randomness involved in Elden Ring's stagger mechanic. This means the player is in full control of their defenses against interruptions. As players embark on more dangerous tasks in Elden Ring, an understanding of Poise thresholds and Super Armor frames can make the difference between life and death.
Elden Ring is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.